It has been said that bearing a child is one of the most miraculous things a woman can do in her lifetime. Months, sometimes years, of preparation can go into planning a pregnancy.
Of course, with major events come major advertising campaigns and people trying to cash in on the special occasion. Open any pregnancy magazine and you are instantly confronted with page after page of advertising for so-called baby products.
The question is: Who decides if these products are safe for babies?
The world is certainly becoming more aware of the impact of chemicals in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and in the water we drink. And no one becomes aware of things more rapidly than a pregnant woman. But there is still a definite grey area surrounding the effects of chemicals in personal care products, and this includes baby care.
More often than not, the revelation that a woman is pregnant is followed by a flurry of activity: trips to the doctor, to the hospital, and to the hardware shop to pick out paint for the nursery. But during all this preparation no one is warning the parents-to-be about the potential hazards lurking in all the baby necessities.
Pregnancy and babies are BIG business, but in the race to out-sell the competition most big brands have simply dropped their ethics and kept on running.
Expectant couples are one of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to advertising; everyone wants "the best" for their baby. Herein lies the irony.
The fact is that the vast majority of products aimed at the pregnancy/baby market are potentially harmful for both mother and child.
Let's begin with the bathroom cabinet. One of the first steps for a lot of pregnant women is to start a new body care regime, often using products formulated for pregnant or nursing mothers. This "formulation" leads the consumer to believe that these products are perfectly safe for the mother and for the child (who will absorb a whopping 60–70 percent of the toxins that enter the mother's blood stream).
However, products such as stretch-mark creams, baby oil, and relaxing bubble baths often contain ingredients that these mothers-to-be would be less than happy for their baby to ingest. To name some particulars: bubble bath wouldn't be so "bubbly" without the sodium lauryl sulfate, a foaming agent also used in car washes and engine degreasers. Equally worrying is that baby oil is usually 100 per cent mineral oil—a petroleum by-product that coats the skin like plastic and clogs those all important pores.
By the time the little one arrives, it will probably have every conceivable lotion, potion, and powder poised to be patted onto the inevitable sore bottom. For this reason, personal care products are one of the worst culprits of sales deception. These well-marketed bottles, with slogans such as "mild," "gentle," and "kind" are generally a cocktail of toxins. Children are extremely vulnerable to the vast array of chemicals prevalent in personal care products. A child's skin is 30 percent thinner than an adult's, but the surface area of skin (relative to body weight) is greater. This means that the potential dose of a chemical following dermal exposure is likely to be three times greater than in an adult. Another worrying statistic is that the blood-brain barrier, necessary to protect the baby's brain tissue from penetration by the aforementioned preparations (which are often neurotoxic), is not fully formed until the age of six months.
In the absence of adequate legislation, the manufacturers of children's products have made unfounded claims about product safety.
Commonly used in this group of products are ingredients such as:
• Parabens—linked to hormone disruption.
• Dyes and fragrances—both known neurotoxins and allergens.
• Alcohol—a very drying solvent and dehydrator, known to strip the skin's natural acid mantle, making it more vulnerable to bacteria, moulds, and viruses.
• Phthalates—used to make plastics flexible. They are also found in shampoos, moisturizers, nail polishes, and hair sprays; links to them have been made with testicular abnormalities in male offspring, who have been exposed to these chemicals in the womb.
Other side effects of this plethora of synthetic ingredients include skin irritation, asthma, and eczema. So at a time when these types of inflammatory reactions have never been more common in children, could it be that the cure is actually the cause? It's terrible to think that some thick "soothing" creams recommended for childhood eczema could actually be making the whole situation worse. Two recent studies (Trepanned 2004 & Katevatis 2006) have found that certain chemicals in baby care products are causing these skin complaints.
Moving on to the nursery—a sanctuary of calm for the newborn and a sphere in which mother can put her nesting skills to good use.
Often the nursery will need to be painted, possibly requiring the old paint to be stripped from the walls. If a standard paint is used, it will emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a group of chemicals known to cause headaches, eye, nose, and throat infections, coughing, itchy skin, nausea, dizziness, and mood swings.
Next, the freshly-stripped and painted nursery is furnished: cot, changing table, curtains, and bedclothes. If bought from a conventional baby store these will undoubtedly have been treated with fire retardants, the cotton fibers in curtains and bedspread might have been sprayed with pesticides and fertilizers in the field, and then dipped in chemical dyes. The first place babies put all things as soon as they've mastered the pincer grip, is in their mouths. So, in go the fertilizers, dyes, and fire retardants. Not quite the nutritious eating plan the parents had in mind.
On an optimistic note though, things are evolving rapidly as large corporations tap into consumer consciousness and start to produce their own supposedly "natural" varieties.
My advice is this: take these life-changing decisions into your own hands. Search out information on ethical skin care and home supplies. Read ingredients on bottles. Take back your right to decide on your family's long-term health.
Sources:
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com
http://www.ewg.org (an environmental working group)
http://www.wen.org.uk
The Green Parent Guide 2008, by Melissa Corkhill
Laurie Sanders is a specialist in the field of natural, organic cosmetics and the founder of Orglamic, an organic cosmetics advice, and make-up artistry service.
Her Web site is http://www.orglamic.co.uk
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